The Saudi Arabia of Natural Gas? (minus the sand)

NYTimes:  Sending Natural Gas Abroad
"A new and long-awaited report from the Department of Energy has concluded that the government should quickly begin easing restrictions on the export of natural gas to take advantage of the vast new discoveries of a fuel that only a decade ago was in relatively short supply in this country."

The pros of increased natural gas production and export

• increased revenue for the natural gas industry
• reducing dependence of foreign countries on questionable suppliers ie Iran and Russia.

The cons of increased natural gas production and export

• higher domestic natural gas prices
• potential environmental damage due to fracking

The cited report is a pair of studies by EIA and NERA Economic Consulting (see here).  Interestingly the EIA study looked at 16 scenarios with the most aggressive assuming exports of 12 Bcf (Billion Cubic Feet) of natural gas per day.

To put this into context.  Currently there are 20 applications for export of natural gas pending (see here) totaling 20 Bcf per day.  The lower 48 states currently produce about 73 Bcf per day.   (1 Bcf is approximately 100 NYMEX NG size contracts).